View Full Forums : Raising Combine Merchants faction...


Sippin
05-25-2007, 02:07 PM
I've finally conceded that the best way to gear up my alts is to pharm orux and faction and buy gear from the Combine Merchants. There isn't much out there than someone can pharm with one group which matches the stuff available from these guys.

So I'm looking for tips on how fastest to raise that faction.

I can run through Evidence of Unity in about an hour. That's good for 50 orux per toon and, I read, about 1% of the faction needed to get to allied. Which means a rather huge timesink, although I can probably cut it down now that I'm learning the nuances of this instance. But I also don't want to spend all this factioning time in one instance.

Any tips out there for raising Combine Merchants faction? Or feedback for other instances/missions which are as good or better than this one, in terms of risk vs reward?

Palarran
05-25-2007, 02:19 PM
A 50 orux mission should give roughly 2% of the faction needed to get ally, not 1%. So you're actually progressing twice as fast as you thought you were. :)

Micahle
05-25-2007, 11:00 PM
RvR, EoU is the best you'll get. You can do Fate of the Combine, which gives 25Orux, which is pretty simple but you still have the 45min lockout if u finish early. 50/hour is better than 25/45mins.

Sippin
05-26-2007, 06:45 AM
A 50 orux mission should give roughly 2% of the faction needed to get ally, not 1%. So you're actually progressing twice as fast as you thought you were. :)

Boy, that's good news!

I wonder if the +faction necklace, http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=5695, could be used as well...

Palarran
05-26-2007, 07:43 AM
If it does work, it'll account for only 200 orux' worth of faction. (Alliance = +100 faction = +200 orux)

I don't remember if I was able to find an NPC on Combine Empire Merchant faction that I was able to cast on.

Benwin
05-28-2007, 07:49 PM
Well you can try out The Great Invasion, took me from 1hour 10mins to 1hour 30 on average, doing it with druid. Although, with a FD/puller class in there it can take 30mins, if you are on song. Highest reward for this is 50 Orux.

Tenielle
05-28-2007, 09:48 PM
Evidence of Unity and RvR? I'm not familiar with these, are they soloable?

Been running FoTC and Great Invasion for faction myself.

Micahle
05-28-2007, 10:38 PM
RvR = Risk vs Reward ie. how worthwhile is it doing :) EoU i'd say would be a tough solo for most druids - long, too. For at least a trio it'd be worthwhile (was able to run it in 45-60mins with bst/dru/shammy alt), but FoTC is still good for something that's essentially soloable.

Golthine Gettinwood
05-29-2007, 09:06 PM
I've been raising faction solo with the Greenhouse area missions (Herb Retrieval and the snake slaying ones). I just bind at the safe area near the greenhouse, succor back to get missions, then just collect all the herbs I find. You can keep them in your bags, and then drop them on the ground and pick them back up for mission updates, so it's really easy to repeat, and while the faction hits aren't huge, you're killing several birds)well, snakes anyways!) with one stone.

Riverwinter
05-29-2007, 09:16 PM
/laughs

GMTA Gol!

Sippin
05-30-2007, 06:56 AM
On a hunch I spoke to the quest-giver who offers "Solteris Access #3: Snakes Hiding Something" and was surprised to see that it was available to me. Evidently these don't have to be done in sequence. Previewing the reward I discovered it offers 82 orux, which is easily the highest I've ever heard from one mission. I didn't have time to run the instance with my toons right then but I plan to go back and try it. Not sure how "boxable" this one is, but it's worth a shot for 82 orux.

Gaminide
05-30-2007, 09:50 AM
Solteris Access #3: Snakes Hiding Something

People hate it because of bath pathing

Sippin
05-30-2007, 11:08 AM
Well you can try out The Great Invasion, took me from 1hour 10mins to 1hour 30 on average, doing it with druid. Although, with a FD/puller class in there it can take 30mins, if you are on song. Highest reward for this is 50 Orux.

You solo this with a druid? I notice the priests are perma-rooted and don't summon, which is tailor-made for a root-rot strat. If the helpful defenders kill the required 10 trash mobs, I assume you get the quest credit?

Galain
05-30-2007, 07:28 PM
Easiest/fastest solo task I found is this one http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4169. (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4169)

Bind by the pyramid to Zhisza to speed things up. Get task, gate to pyramid. Zone to Zhisza and run to the Silyssar zone line. Once in Silyssar, egress. To the south/SE of you are 5 piles of rubble to kill. Once done, gate and then egress to the temple area. Takes longer to do all the zoning than to get the 5 artifacts. Task is repeatable and takes about 10 minutes to finish.

This is assuming you have done Solteris 1-5 btw.

Sippin
06-01-2007, 06:33 AM
Solteris #1 isn't bad for RvR. Clearing the zone takes less time than EoU requires to get the 5 drops and crawl to the 2 nameds. Then it all comes down to how fast the final "challenge" can be handled.

Solteris #2 goes pretty quickly too. However I ran into a bug where after examining the statue and getting all the updates up to that point my group didn't receive the Etching Transcript in our inventory. This means we couldn't do the final turn-in hence no chance to finish the mission. Anyone else seen this bug? It's been posted by at least one other person on allakhazam.

I /bug'd and /petition'd and am awaiting a response from Sony.

Yakk
06-01-2007, 03:33 PM
I had the "missing etching" bug before. Someone had a previous transcript in their inventory, so all went well in the end.

Sippin
06-02-2007, 08:35 PM
Best pharmable mission I've found so far is Solteris Access #2: Locating the Statue. Got this down to 45 minutes and it pays 50 orux per toon. The zone spawns with lower mob density than the regular zone or the Evidence of Unity instance. The route to the Statue Room is the shorter left route and the run can usually be made with minimal clearing due to the low density of monsters. Even the penultimate room populated by see-invis Kedge is so thinly spawned that you can just run "open-field" past all of them.

Then it's just kill the 4 statues and the boss to complete the instance. Pretty easy effort for the reward. You DO need a splitter for these 5 mobs else they come all together. But splitting them isn't hard, worse comes to worse, snare+evac works fine.

Sippin
06-03-2007, 11:20 AM
Solteris Access #3: Snakes Hiding Something

People hate it because of bath pathing

I didn't see any pathing problems at all. Nothing like Evidence of Unity sillinessl. But it's a long tough mission with very little room for error. 82 orux is a pittance for the time and effort, at least for a 6-boxer like me, so I won't be doing it again.

Sorrian
06-04-2007, 09:10 PM
Solteris #2 goes pretty quickly too. However I ran into a bug where after examining the statue and getting all the updates up to that point my group didn't receive the Etching Transcript in our inventory. This means we couldn't do the final turn-in hence no chance to finish the mission. Anyone else seen this bug? It's been posted by at least one other person on allakhazam.

I /bug'd and /petition'd and am awaiting a response from Sony.

Only the person who examined the statue will get the transcript at first. Once you do the final turn-in, back in Katta Castrum, everyone will receive a transcript in their inventory. If their inventory is full it will appear somewhere in their bank inventory. This was not the case when TBS was first released. I did this mission on the first day, if I remember correctly, and everyone received the transcript once the statue was examined. This was changed shortly after when SOE added the guardians in the last room to make it harder for beastlords and monks to solo it, in 15 minutes, while having their boxed toons sitting in Katta Castrum reaping the rewards.

Sippin
06-05-2007, 03:39 PM
I've since discovered that the toon "examining" the statue has to pause on the platform for at least a second or two to receive the Etching Transcript. I've done this mission several times since and it happens just like Sorrian describes.

Sippin
06-17-2007, 09:21 AM
Locating the Statue is the way to go to raise this faction---and earn orux---about as fast as possible. I got the run down to 30 minutes (earning 42-50 orux per toon) which is about as fast as it's worth it, since the lockout timer for these missions is 45 minutes. Anyone who wants a tip sheet on one way to do this fast see my posts on allakhazam under this quest.

2413 orux got me to allied. And, boy, am I done with locating the statue!

Lujayne
06-17-2007, 11:22 AM
Solteris 6 - Where There is a Will is a soloable mission (Well you need two others in group to request). Starts out with roughly 75? Orux per win, dropping to about 55 after a few runs.

Basically all you have to do is stand near a teleporter and Egress when adds pop up until you get the correct task update. A win ususally can put you around a 15-5 minute lockout. Training in the Quick Evacuation AA in our class tab is recommended before trying it out.

Of course the downside is you need to have done missions 1-5 to request the mission.

Taolana
06-19-2007, 02:51 AM
Solteris 6 would be the best farmable mission imo. But grab an sk or a monk to fd near the teleporter for you. After a few snake spawns, you should get the update. The sk/monk does not have to move from the fd point. So its quick and easy for fd classes.

Oh, get someone to request #6 who has done 1-5.

Benwin
06-20-2007, 12:20 AM
You solo this with a druid? I notice the priests are perma-rooted and don't summon, which is tailor-made for a root-rot strat. If the helpful defenders kill the required 10 trash mobs, I assume you get the quest credit?

Yes just a druid (I do park an enchanter up the top for speeding up killing the Priests but.

And you assume correctly, you don't have to kill the 10 mobs to get the quest credit. BUT when the priests are killed you MUST have one character in the zone at the time, or you do not get credit for that kill. And your whole mission is bugged.

Mobs have a fairly low aggro radius, although some rooms have up to 6 mobs in them, all packed together. Its just a case of snaring and egress'ing etc. There are a few intricies involved (i.e keeping your nobles together and alive, you can get over 10 of them btw), and the first 4 or 5 times I did it I was dying 3+ times learning it.

I don't die as much anymore, and doing them agains quad hitting 1.5k mobs encouraged me to do my defensive pop AA's as well. All good fun but, love little challanges like that.

Bacchuss
07-24-2007, 03:20 PM
Yes just a druid (I do park an enchanter up the top for speeding up killing the Priests but.

And you assume correctly, you don't have to kill the 10 mobs to get the quest credit. BUT when the priests are killed you MUST have one character in the zone at the time, or you do not get credit for that kill. And your whole mission is bugged.

Mobs have a fairly low aggro radius, although some rooms have up to 6 mobs in them, all packed together. Its just a case of snaring and egress'ing etc. There are a few intricies involved (i.e keeping your nobles together and alive, you can get over 10 of them btw), and the first 4 or 5 times I did it I was dying 3+ times learning it.

I don't die as much anymore, and doing them agains quad hitting 1.5k mobs encouraged me to do my defensive pop AA's as well. All good fun but, love little challanges like that.

FD for the splitting instead of snaring evacing? Is that what you are talking about for a 30 minute run, Benwin?

Bacchuss
07-24-2007, 11:08 PM
Hmm, I have to learn the trick to soloing this (Great Invasion). I killed 2 priests, almost had the 3rd cleared to kill. I ran out of time , it was getting late. I was 3 hours in to the mission. Oh well, first time. It's a learning experience.

*Edit* I just learned off the necro boards for P3 & P4 you dont have to clear thier rooms, the mobs dont assist when the priests are cast upon? Just make sure roamers are clear.

Benwin
07-31-2007, 10:00 PM
To do a 30min run, I can't see how unless you are using a FD/Blur class. A friend of mine does it with a Bard very quickly. So yest thats what I was talking about.

No mobs assist in the Priest rooms btw. Except P2 as the other mobs are so close ... A few tips:-

Terms:-
P1 first room on left as you enter level 3.

P2 As you enter level 3 go straight down hall, and turn left.

P3 as above but take 2nd right corridor in the hall.

P4 Past P3 go right to get to room.

Whilst no mobs will assist, if a noble wanders in there they aggro on that, then pick up on your dot aggro and come after you. Which is why P4 can suck, if you time it so that you can get at the Priest there before any nobles make it you are golden.

For the best runs the longer you can keep the nobles on level 2 killing critters from level 3 will save you heaps of time.

The mobs in P4 will warp, and will aggro half the dungeon as they like to take shortcuts to get to you. If you run back to just outside P1, sometimes they will warp to you sometimes not.

The very long hallway on level 2 (leading to the ramp that winds down to level 3). At the start of it is a little alcove, just a dead end. Do not sit and med there, mobs will warp on your head from a nearby room hehe.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did (although after 50 odd runs it got a bit painful).

Beatslayer
08-01-2007, 05:04 AM
This task (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4276) is seldomly done and rather simple after learning how to use the Prod. You can solo it in however long it takes you root/dot 11 mobs.

The final named didn't summon and was snarable. You can pull the gorillas out of the oasis area and kill on a patch of open sand, then when it comes time to prod, be sure to prod them towards the traps.